Posts Tagged With: Pink Ribbon

Have you noticed that once October rolls around everything start turning pink? I often wonder what foreigner’s think of Americans who essentially turn pink once a year in October. Could they be thinking “Is there a nation-wide baby shower occurring?” or “Is there a National Turn Pink Day?”

Photo Taken from Jezebel Article written by Erin Gloria Ryan

Pink. Red and white are the colors needed to make different shades of pink. Pink is traditionally associated with babies, especially baby girls. Pink ribbons represents Breast Cancer Awareness. However, we are all EXTREMELY aware of Breast Cancer due to all the pink “campaigning” that goes on. “For every product you buy of ours, we will donate $1 to Susan G. Komen and the fight for the cure!” Do big corporations benefit by “raising awareness” for Susan G. Komen? YES.

The documentary, Pink Ribbon Inc., exposes many problems of big corporations utilizing Breast Cancer and the fight for a cure to profit from. My fellow blogger, Eric, used the term “pinkwashing” in his blog post PINKWASHED. AND FEELING DIRTY ABOUT IT, when describing the actions of corporations that sell products under the guise of benefitting a charity.

The possibilities of promoting breast cancer are endless! From purchasing guns (how’s that for gun control?) to NFL players wearing pink (Is this an emphasis on “real men wear pink?”) there are so many ways to raise awareness for Breast Cancer through pink products. Erin Gloria Ryan, from Jezebel, complied a whole list of Pink Products in her blog post, The Silliest Pink Crap Money Can Buy, None of Which Will Cure Breast Cancer. From the list, it is astounding the amount of pink products you can buy. However, the question becomes: how much of these pink products are truly from genuine care and not from profiting purposes?

This “pink epidemic” causes us to forget the true reasons as to why we are raising awareness. The pink ribbon hides away the true image of people who are actually fighting breast cancer. These breast cancer patients and survivors are the true reasons why we started to “raise awareness” and “look for a cure” in the first place. So why have we commercialized the pink ribbon so much that when we think of breast cancer we immediately think about pink ribbons and NOT the women (or men) who are battling the cancer or survived it?

Breast Cancer is NOT a Ribbon.[Photo Taken from Women’s Rights News Facebook Page]

Next time when you buy another pink product, think about this: How much would actually be given to the organization? How much of this money will truly get used for research?

Thoughts on men & boobies cancer? Well it exists and instead of creating the “light blue ribbon awareness.” They came up with the idea of Topless Female Trampolining World Championships to spread awareness. Here is the video: